2022 UN Day Celebration in Viet Nam

• Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, former Permanent Representative of Viet Nam to the UN in New York
• Dr. Pham Lan Dzung, Acting President of the Diplomatic Academy of Viet Nam
• Dr. Otto Scharmer, Co-founder of Presencing Institute, close collaborator and friend
• Excellencies, Senior Diplomats and Former Permanent Representatives to the UN, Ambassadors
• UN colleagues and those participating online
• Dear young people – I see a lot of you here this early morning,
• Distinguished guests

Good morning and welcome to the UN Day Celebrations!

On behalf of the United Nations in Viet Nam, I would like to sincerely thank you for joining us to mark this special day. I am very happy to see so many of you here.

I want to start off on a personal note. There are many things I love about my job. One is that everyday is an opportunity for me to learn. Today, its learning how to make UN and diplomats to dance without permission. Thank you DAV Music Club for the performance and showing how important it is to incorporate art and creative economy in unconventional solutions to SDGs.

Distinguished guests, colleagues, friends,

The pandemic uprooted many long-held traditions and routines. Today, I’m excited that we can – after two years of without UN Day celebrations – that we can be here together.

Re-igniting the UN Day celebrations provides an opportunity to reflect on the many profound changes that have taken place, look ahead and continue the conversations about the future we want.

We have crafted today’s event to build on Our Common Agenda, launched by the UN Secretary General in 2020. At the UN General Assembly held in August 2022, the Secretary General presented his report on Our Common Agenda. It provided a framework and an opportunity to unite the international community around solutions to the multiple crises affecting humanity.

When the UN Secretary General, Mr António Guterres visted Viet Nam earlier this fall – and came to the Diplomatic Academy! – he spoke not only of ‘achieving the sustainable development agenda’, he spoke of ‘rescuing the SDGs’. In line with this, Our Common Agenda is first and foremost a booster shot for the Sustainable Development Goals, to get back on track for sustainable growth and resilience in today's very challenging circumstances.

But it also goes beyond the SDGs, addressing challenges and gaps in multilateral frameworks that have become more urgent since 2015. The ideas in the report fall into four broad categories:

1. A New Global Deal to redistribute power and resources, and a renewal of the social contract;
2. A focus on the future, with steps to enhance youth engagement and to take future generations into account in policy decisions;
3. An effort to deliver public goods and manage global shocks and crises more effectively; and
4. An upgrading of the United Nations, so that we are better equipped to support governments in finding and implementing multilateral solutions.

Here, I want to mention the Summit of the Future. The Summit is a high-level event will bring together UN Member States, UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, academic institutions, the private sector, and youth under the theme, ‘Summit of the Future: Multilateral Solutions for a Better Tomorrow’. It aims to forge a new global consensus on what our future should look like, and what we can do today to secure it. This Summit is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvigorate global action, recommit to fundamental principles, and further develop the frameworks of multilateralism so they are fit for the future. This Summit should maximize the booster effect for the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. Us meeting here today is an important opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions on our joint direction of travel, in line with the aspiration and goals of the Summit of the Future.

It is clear that we, as a community of practice, and as humanity need to do things differently. We need to adapt, be flexible, ramp up global solidarity and work closer and better together to propel the changes needed for an equitable and green future for all. We have, against this backdrop, invited Dr Otto Sharmer to give us a virtual keynote address. Dr Scharmer is the founder of the Precensing Institute and the U-school of Transformation, and a senior lecturer at MIT. He joins us from New York, and will speak to us about transformational leadership and awareness-based systems change.

We are excited to join forces with the Diplomatic Academy of Viet Nam on this special day. Findings solutions for the challenges of tomorrow requires the young generations’ active engagement. In the spirit of ‘nothing for youth, without youth’ we hope for this event to inspire the next generation of leaders and thinkers to engage in meaningful discussions around the future of multilateralism. Together, we wish to engage in dialogue around questions such as:

1. How can we reimagine multilateralism to meet the needs of tomorrow?
2. What are the innovations or unconventional solutions to achieve ensure sustainable and inclusive development for all?

I am eager to learn from you and commit to continue these dialogues on forging the “future we want.”

Thank you, Xin cam on!

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The recording link of the 2022 UN Day Celebration at DAV today, 13 December 2022:

https://bit.ly/3PmAhQx

Passcode: wuP962@*